Decoding morse code wouldnt be as easy as bar code, and I dont mean the fact that morse code should be more flexible regarding timing. I mean the fact that to decipher morse code you kneed to know which words exist, due to the fact that some letters are encoded as the beggining of other letters, for eg.: T = dash, E = Dot, and A = dot slash. Therefore, you would have to identify with the microcontroller weather the message was originally 'A' or 'ET'. If I remember well, bar code doesnt have this problem as all simbols are 4 bars long.
Thats why I believe that decoding morse code would require more processing power which a microcontroller wouldnt have.